Bao & Bun's Bilingual Journey

Little Bao has been making slow progress in his Chinese reading endurance. We’re now at the Yellow level of Greenfield books. If I don’t have high expectations for him, I actually think he reads pretty well. He knows about 60-70% of the high-frequency characters for each book. He’s retaining more characters as we move through the Greenfield books.

It was at that moment that I realized leveled readers just weren’t cutting it. The books were so short that there wasn’t enough story for him to sink his teeth into. It seemed like these books were designed more for reading practice than for enjoying a good story.

I recently asked my son to choose between two books to read with me: “亮亮的成長” and “皮皮與波西”. Both books have large fonts, zhuyin, and simple stories. Since my son is a boy, I didn’t expect him to choose “亮亮”, and I was right. He picked “皮皮與波西” instead.

It was his first time reading an actual book by himself, so I was a bit nervous. However, he did well and read at about the same pace as the Greenfield books. He was familiar with most characters because the book is written colloquially and is very easy to understand. My main goal is for him to develop the habit of reading books, not just leveled readers. He’s starting to do this in English, and I don’t want his Chinese reading to lag behind.

Unlike his sister, I think he may need to reread each book several times and become very fluent in reading the same book before moving on to a different set.

“皮皮與波西” is the translated version of “Pip and Posy” in English, and is available here. What I love most about this series is that the font is larger than most picture books, and the stories are silly and relatable to most kids. I adore all of their books! I am surprised not a lot of bilingual families talk about this set.